Topics - Worldtraveller

researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created origami-inspired artificial muscles that add strength to soft robots, allowing them to lift objects that are up to 1,000 times their own weight using only air or water pressure, giving much-needed strength to soft robots. The study is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).. . . . . "In addition to their muscle-like properties, these soft actuators are highly scalable. We have built them at sizes ranging from a few millimeters up to a meter, and their performance holds up across the board," Wood says. This feature means that the muscles can be used in numerous applications at multiple scales, such as miniature surgical devices, wearable robotic exoskeletons, transformable architecture, deep-sea manipulators for research or construction, and large deployable structures for space exploration.

Actually, this one looks like it might not completely backfire and doom us to death. The mosquitoes are all male, and when they mate with the females, they carry a bacteria that causes the eggs to not hatch.

Prompted by this article about bots being used to spread propaganda in the WA state election, which was heavily funded by interests outside the state, and the ongoing investigations at the federal level, I'm prompted to ask: How do we reduce/minimize/fix this?

Is there a technology answer to at least a lot of the 'bot' problem? I wouldn't mind so much if the GOP swept every house and senate and gov, etc....if the votes were legit, the districts weren't gerrymandered to fuck with things, and there wasn't so much outright voter suppression.

Also, all of these things (even the one I linked to above) are explicitly GOP tactics being used to cheat and win elections. If I were a republican, even if I were winning, I would be pushing to change this from within, but the MAGAbots, and even the less enthusiastic GOPers seem to be totally with 'cheat to win' as a strategy. We suck at democracy, I guess?

Repairing tissue ruptures during surgery can be complicated: Suturing requires piercing an already damaged tissue, and sealants such as glues may not match the material properties of the tissue, leading to subsequent leakage or rupture. Annabi et al. capitalized on the elastic properties of the human protein tropoelastin to engineer a photocrosslinkable hydrogel sealant material. The injectable material, MeTro, successfully sealed surgical incisions in blood vessels in rats and in lungs in pigs without evidence of leakage or rupture. Tunable elastic hydrogel sealants offer a promising adhesive, biocompatible, biodegradable material for tissue repair.

Over-under on whether it matters to the yokels who elected this clown?

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Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, who has a strong anti-abortion voting history, acknowledged last month he had an affair with Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh. Text messages sent between Murphy's phone number and Edwards in January show the two discussing the pregnancy scare, and Edwards pointed out Murphy's hypocrisy in pressuring her to get an abortion.

A ProPublica investigation found that attorneys in the Manhattan District Attorney's office spent about two years building a case against the two Trump children that included emails showing the Trumps knew they were using inflated figures to attract potential buyers to the condo...The case disappeared after Trump's personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, met with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to ask him to drop the investigation...Three months after the meeting, Vance overruled his own prosecutors and dropped the case. That same year, Kasowitz donated $25,000 to Vance's campaign, which Vance said was returned shortly before their meeting.

"I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed," Vance told ProPublica. "I had to make a call and I made the call, and I think I made the right call."

A later donation of $50,000, however, occurred less than six months after Vance dropped the case. When confronted with this information, according to ProPublica, Vance pledged to return this donation as well, pledging that it would not be a "millstone" around the neck of his office.

His stories followed a simple formula: Use a famous name, include a real photo and make at least the first few sentences read like a standard news story. That way, his stories would have credibility before readers began to doubt.

[T]he U.S. Commerce Department that will impose duties on Bombardier Inc's (BDRBF) C-Series jets after a complaint from rival Boeing Co. (BA - Get Report) that the Canadian group receives unfair government support.

The 219.63% duty on new commercial jets made by Bombardier and sold in the United States would effectively triple the $80 million base cost of the C-Series and likely lead to its scrapping. Montreal-based Bombardier called the ruling "absurd" and vowed to challenge it through the International Trade Commission.

Given that Boeing makes billions/year, and pays no taxes, is this actually a legal thing, or is just because the US Commerce Department is a racket? Any of the lawyers here familiar with tariff law, because it seems like it's run by the fucking mafia to me.

Anyone else following this? It looks likely that Merkel will win re-election as chancellor, which is probably good. However, there is a disturbing rise in the far right party AfD, which is the first far right party in Germany since the actual nazis. There are some good reference links at the bottom of the linked story with background on the different factions.

A coalition of evangelical leaders released a "Christian manifesto" Tuesday asserting their belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and condemning the acceptance of "homosexual immorality or transgenderism."

And you'll love what they call themselves:

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The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Still looking for any kind of information on the actual makeup of this council, but it's a safe bet that it's all male, and mostly white and old. Love this little juxtoposition:

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The "manifesto," which is composed of 14 beliefs, rejects the idea that "otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree" on gay, lesbian and transgender issues. The leaders refer to this mentality as "moral indifference.. . . . . "White evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump during the election -- 80 percent."

I guess if we can't just agree to disagree, then they'd be ok with banning xianity, or at least their version of it, if that's what the majority wanted?

I guess the good news here is that this is pretty much at least settled law. These slack jawed yokels just need to catch up, or die off. Either one, really is ok by me.

From here.First off, Roy Moore?? Again? WTF AL? He was removed from office as a judge, (disbarred too, I think), ran again and lost, but not by as much as he should have, and now they're gonna put him congress?

I did find this quote entertaining, though:

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The three candidates spent much of the race jockeying over who could be the best steward of Trump's message in the Senate. That dynamic made Trump's decision to endorse Strange, the fruit of a push by top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a powerful one.

Yet it has also opened the door for his opponents to tar Strange as the pick of Washington insiders -- both Moore and Brooks have evoked McConnell in campaign ads as the embodiment of the very swamp that Trump has promised to excise from Washington.

Trumpster fire is already seen as an insider, or at least the label is being applied already. Funny that.

The FBI has arrested an Oklahoma man on charges that he tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb, acting out of a hatred for the U.S. government and an admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy Mc­Veigh, according to court papers.

Jerry Drake Varnell was arrested shortly after an early Saturday morning attempt to detonate a fake bomb packed into what he believed was a stolen cargo van outside a bank in Oklahoma City, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. He was charged with attempted destruction of a building by means of an explosive.

I'm going to hold off on a VR headset for the next generation to come out.

So, I'm looking at getting a decent entry level digital camera that I'll be able to expand with additional lenses as I get proficient with it. Hah!

There's a Nikon DX D5200 on the local CL for $375. The reviews seem decent for this camera, but there are some others I was looking at too (Nikon D3100, Canon EOS 700D).

Any recommendations? I'll mostly be using for wildlife photography, so I'll want to get a good telephoto lens soon, probably. Also for sports (racing) photos, but less of that. I would think the same lens would probably be wanted for that anyway?